Favorite ice cream flavors linked to personality traits

CANTON, Mass., July 21 (UPI) -- If your favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip, you're more likely to be argumentative, frugal and cautious, a U.S. expert in smell and taste says.

Ice cream maker Baskin-Robbins and Dr. Alan Hirsch, a nationally recognized smell and taste expert who founded the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, identified what some popular ice cream flavors suggest about someone's personality.

"We uncovered quite a few surprising findings when investigating what a person's favorite ice cream flavor says about their personality," Hirsch said in a statement. "For instance, we found that people who prefer rainbow sherbet are more pessimistic than you would think, in spite of the flavor's bright taste profile, and that those who prefer rocky road are actually very good listeners."

The study also found if your favorite flavor was:

-- Vanilla, you're more likely to be impulsive, easily suggestible and an idealist.

-- Strawberry, you're more likely to be a tolerant, devoted and an introvert.

-- Mint chocolate chip, you're more likely to be argumentative, frugal and cautious.

-- Chocolate chip cookie dough, you're more likely to be ambitious, competitive and a visionary.

-- Pralines 'n' cream, you're more likely to be loving, supportive and prefer to avoid the spotlight.

-- Jamoca, or coffee, you're more likely to be scrupulous, conscientious and a moral perfectionist.

-- Chocolate chip, you're more likely to be generous, competent and a go-getter.

-- Rainbow sherbet, you're more likely to be analytic, decisive and a pessimistic.

-- Rocky road, you're more likely to be aggressive, engaging and a good listener.

The results were derived from the responses of U.S. adults, ages 18-65, who were asked their favorite flavor of ice cream when they completed the following standardized comprehensive psychiatric and personality tests: the Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III); Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2); Beck Depression Inventory, Zung Anxiety and Zung Depression test batteries. APA Diagnostic Classification DSM-IV-TR diagnoses such as anxiety disorders or impulse-control disorder personality disorders and traits were determined.

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